While most of us are happy that Harris (my second choice) emerged as a frontrunner and knocked Biden (my second to last choice) down a peg or two, I am concerned the healthcare discussion on Thursday night played into Trumps wheelhouse. It is problematic that many of the candidates supported ending private insurance (25% of Medicare recipients in Florida choose to use Medicare Advantage — a privately administered program) while all of them raised their hands when asked if their medical plan supported care for undocumented immigrants. The commercials will write themselves.
These are not yes or no questions, and the answers need to be much more nuanced. A public option/Medicare for those who want it is a much better response, as it eliminates one of the major areas of attack for Republicans. They will still claim it is too expensive (as they always do), but it blunts the scare tactic that you are going to loose your plan/doctors/hospital. And for those who claim that people don’t care about their insurance providers (it’s their doctors that they like), many unions have negotiated retiree health care plans that are considered superior to Medicare with no copays, donut holes, etc.
We also need some level of basic care for everyone in the country — after all, if an undocumented person has a communicable disease , we need to treat it. I don't think any of our candidates advocates a program that says that someone can cross the border today and get a knee replace next week. However, when they all raise their hand when asked if their healthcare plan will cover undocumented immigrants, that is exactly how the other side will portray it.
If the election is a referendum on Trump, he looses. We need to offer an alternative, but that alternative can not be yes or no answers to complex issues that can easily be distorted and caricatured.